EP4 SPOILERS = The Stranger's Identity? (UPDATED)
So this episode they gave us A LOT of hints on who could this stranger guys is.... fiona made a point that the stranger is NOT going to kill them, you ask why? because she says if he/she plans on killing them then why hide your identity? why go over all the trouble of hearing a story from un-trust-worthy bunch like fiona and rhys?
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my theory is that it IS a vault hunter. because he has a weapon NO Bandit can get... unless he's 100000000000000& lucky. which i doubt! he has a legendary.
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2nd i have a theory that maybe it IS Athena. You Ask WHY? you can find the same weapon above in BL2 And in TPS. plus being a legendary only a vaulthunter can have that kind of weapon. unless this is a super lucky OR working with some VH's.. which i doubt... THEN, what made me SURE that he KNOW THEM! is when he says to fiona Tell Me About The Dome ... now HOW can he know about this? HE'S the one who mentioned it. fiona did not! either he's been hired to do this by some who was there, OR HE WAS THERE WITH THEM! and i think he WILL know who's lying because he simply was there. again, it could be athena, or not. but know i believe 95% that he IS a vaulthunter. 2nd, i believe that 50% that its athena.
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again this is just a theory, it may not be true. but it would be awesome if it is. i think if all this is true, then the stranger is taking fiona/rhys to lilith and the gang. because War is coming according to TPS ending. and they NEED every vaulthunter they can get! plus fiona/rhys looks pretty advanced in future scenes and not flashback! ... I HOPE SO! would love for rhys and fiona to be VH. they implied it with athena training fiona and rhys having a robot companion... maybe i am wrong? i cant wait for EP4 HOPE we can get more answers!
EP4 UPDATE : WOW...... they did not give more stranger scenes, but i think we have a progress...the stranger seem to have ''Lost some people too'' what could that mean? plus we see that ''conference call gun'' where jack hold his trophies or whatever, not a conclusion but just a thing i noticed that could mean nothing, but somehow i really and highly believe that the stranger is from pandora and not hyperian, he clearly favours fiona! and the line that he said where he lost people too, make me believe that he's one of the vaulthunters....
for example : Lilith lost roland, athena lost her sister moxxi/ellie lost scooter etc.... again this is just a hunch, i dont believe its either lilith or moxxi/ellie... but i still believe in the athena theory... you guys can add on that or maybe something i did not notice? overall, we did not get much interactions with the stranger, but i'm sure now that he's not timothy like many thought, i'm basing that on the fact that he lost someone he cared about.. idk, but i just rolled timothy out.. plus i just got noted, which i forgot = that Fiona said that she knew the stranger's coat but could not remember? now what could that mean? i highly think its pandoran... who know fiona somehow. i dont think he's either vaughn or timothy. because why did not rhys recognize the coat instead of fiona? rhys did not have a clue whatsoever.. oh man..
PLUS, after EP4 I think that the stranger is a person who dislike hyperian, but maybe worked with them? hence the conference call legendary, but i highly think its a pandoran who had to work with hyperian or make a deal with them, and IS connected to Fiona and not rhys.
note: i will surly update this with more info as soon as i play the episode again, for now.. i'm just sad about scooter, i need time to heal 
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paying respect :
- mine :
- found on tumblr :
EDIT : IF You Have any theories about the stranger's identity i would love to know 
i want to see if there is other theories.... 
Comments
Well I kinda think it is Zer0. In episode 1 he was searching for the Gortys core, right, and the stranger was quite eager to find Gortys's Energy Chassis. His voice is kinda the same. He might have followed us to the dome and after. He can go invisible, maybe that's why we never saw him. But he is skinny and the stranger..meeeh,so I don't know but your theory is not bad too.
And maybe that's why the stranger is wearing this mask where it has only one big orange thingie to see from because Zer0 makes these emoticons and that mask protects him from doing them....I haven't played the Borderlands games so I know nothing about Zer0...sorry
I have a feeling that is going to be Vaughn.
i think that if it is zer0 then why he didnt kill them? he dont know them. he just made a cameo.. i dont know... zer0 is not the talking type. thats why i dont play as him in BL. i LOVE his skilltree, but playing over 100 hrs zer0 is no fun for me story wise... the stranger seem to * talk * differently.. and he's a vault hunter. WHY he wanted to make a wager with fiona? he can kill her and get what he want.. i hope ep4 can come faster
oh wow. i didnt think of that... but he was there with them? why he wanted for them to tell the story? but he has a legendary lol.. vaughn...? legendary?.... hmmmmm plus lets take the account of him kidnapping fiona and dragging rhys around? i would assume brick would do that not vaughn .. xD
In saying that, though - Finch also has a legendary weapon (an Unkempt Harold) - so in the Tales universe people other than Vault Hunters obviously have access to Legendaries.
As for my thoughts on who The Stranger is, episode three has me firmly back on the Vaughn bandwagon - I wrote this in another thread and still plan to expand on it at some point, but until then, this will do:
I just found that a lot of this episode focused on Vaughn's insecurities (much more obviously in the "choose Jack" playthrough - but enough to be a notable theme in both), and how he doesn't feel like a badass when compared to the people around him. He feels worthless in comparison, and he had that tiny glimpse of power in episode two before realising that even in the badass wasteland of Pandora everyone still sees him as a geeky sidekick. He may have felt more powerful than when he was tabulating figures on Helios, but no matter how many awesome things he does on Pandora he still plays second fiddle to everyone else (hell, people think the two robots are more capable than him)!
I think he wants to make a power play to prove that he's smarter, stronger and tougher than all of them combined - and the only way for him to do that is to conceal his appearance (which he speaks about a lot in the Jack playthrough - noting that Rhys is every bit as nerdy as him, but gets away with it because of the way he looks/his confidence). Like everyone else on Helios, his role model is Handsome Jack - and what does Handsome Jack's story tell you? Put on a mask, act confident and you'll rule the galaxy (or die trying). Isn't that exactly what The Stranger is doing?
I also think that this very likely means that he's set himself up a nice little deal with Vallory - and perhaps that there was more to Vasquez's deal than meets the eye (what if he had something really dodgy set up with Vasquez and now that he's dead he's screwed and needs to do something drastic?)
And I kind of sympathise with him. I made sure to be super nice and promise him that I wouldn't leave him - and then literally the next scene I'm (admittedly forced) to ditch him and go make kissy faces at Sasha - that actually disappointed me a bit, I made a promise and the game forced me to rescind that promise - not cool.
Vasquez... is dead? I didn't play E3 yet..
Fucking put a spoiler tag man. Jeez.
The name of the thread is EP3 spoilers sooo...
Then why the hell are you in a thread that literally has EP 3 SPOILERS in the title?
Sorry that you got spoiled, but that's on you, kiddo.
the stranger is pretty tall and buff or more fuller than vaughn. physically it dont make sense. yes, he may have worn something to make him look fuller but you cant cheat the strength or hight. i dont think the vaughn we saw is capable of kidnapping both fiona and rhys and dragging them around... plus the finch legendary could be from vallory. i dont think he is random bandit he seems experienced and have killed A LOT of people with his buddy. otherwise WHY would vallory WHO Brick AND Mordecai are afraid of IS trusting finch and his buddy of protecting her? even if finch is not a vault hunter, but he isnt a common bandit. he could EASILY had that from vallory. since vault hunters including brick and mordecai are dealng with her AND were kinda nervous around her... so finch could have had that from vallory....
last thought on vaughn, physically it doesnt make sense. YES, he has all those insecurities but you cant cheat that physically. he IS SMART! he COULD have planned that kidnaping! but i dont think he did it physically... i dont think he can do it.... plus vaughn is a hyperian guy, he dont seem to have contact with anyone on pandora. how can he make it? it would be a shocker if the stranger was him.. i dont think it makes sense to me.... BUT, there IS 2 episodes left. if nothing happens in the next episode regarding vaughn then i doubt i can believe it is him.... but i hope you post a link to your post. curious on why you think its him
Good arguments. There is obviously something going on with Vaughn that the game is subtly drawing our attention to.
However, I believe all the scenes with the Stranger must hold some clues about his(?) identity, and there were a few lines which stood out enough to seem like they were important, somehow - the 'do you care to make a wager' line, for one... Why would Vaughn put emphasis on that? Another line that sounded pointed to me was Gortys saying 'it could always be a she' when she was wondering who's been living in the Dome... Might have been an innocuous reference to gender equality, or it might have been a hint. Haha, idk, it's all speculation, and it's really fun for me. :P
I also noticed that Stranger keep doing stupid mistakes. It make sense that Vaughn who is not used to be a ,,badass with a gun" would do things like that.
ummm.. its on the title!!! i'm not the kind who spoil stuff..** i wrote that its a EP3 SPOILER discussion
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Duhh, chill peeps, it is just a joke -_-
It's obvious it is a joke. Obvious...
Those abs, though...
I'd actually be willing to wager that Vaughn is stronger that Rhys (which is admittedly not that hard - too much heavy cybernetics/ice cream)!
Also, speaking purely from a physicality point of view The Stranger has an obvious hunch - the only character we've seen who also has that trait is Vaughn.
I do definitely agree that Finch's legendary could have come from Vallory, but similarly you can note that The Stranger's legendary is a Hyperion model - which may be easier for a Hyperion employee to acquire (especially if one of their friends works in acquisitions).
i dont like to be spoiled myself lol.. i feel bad for him if he had not played EP3 yet, but i did my part on putting a warning in the title
you think its vaughn? but what you think about the strangers appearance? i can see vaughn planning the whole thing, but is he really the one shooting and dragging rhys? lol... it would be a shocker! but... i dont know.. vaughn have been shady in EP2... and is nowhere to be found at the end of EP3. also, he and sasha is not around in * future * or * current* scenes and not the flashbacks.... i wonder where he have been... personally i played nice with vaughn, but i can see him betraying us.. i hope i am wrong but maybe thats why jack mentions that maybe if you wanna LIVE you gotta trust the enemy... EP4 COME FASTER!!!
what do you think about the hight? vaughn is the shortest of them all 3.. not that is a bad thing, i can see him planning this whole thing! but not him actually doing it ... he is nowhere to be found in EP3 last scenes and nowhere to be found in the present scenes, but why he wanted to hear the same story that he was on but from rhys and fiona? and i didnt find teh stranger being clumsy with the gun. he just shoots in the air to make a point to fiona and that she starts talking... lol i am not correcting you, but this seem like good idea and would SHOCK me and make me sad because i was nice to him and i would feel totally betrayed because i forgave him regarding him accepting a deal with vasquez! so i would be less heartbroken and MORE angry at him... but what i see is nit convincing...
plus i am not correcting you lol, but i wanna believe it but as far as EP3 goes, there is little proof on this and more about connecting ideas
This isnt acctualy the stupidest theory I ve ever heard. It makes a lot of sense.
i hope you aren't being sarcastic LOL xD
Well he is searching for the core and maybe smth happened to gortys and the only one who can fix him/her are Rhys and Fiona.
@HandsomeJack's wonderful theory about Vaughn aside, I think the Stranger is connected to Zer0.
There is a side quest in Borderlands 2 where the Vault Hunters are aided by someone. In Zer0's case, he is aided by someone called One. Since Zer0 is also looking for Gortys, it is possible that the Stranger is One.
which quest? i dont remember doing it.. unless its totally different in each vaulthunter case
The second side quest of Sir Hammerlock vs. The Son of Crawmerax. And it is totally different in each Vault Hunter's case. I just mentioned Zer0, because the one who aided him is the most mysterious.
OH thanks so much for that, I think I only played this mini-dlc with Maya or was it Gaige ? I don't think I played it as Zer0, I'll definitely try it as Zer0 !
EDIT : OMG WAIT !!!! need to find screenshots from the strangers and see how many fingers he has, he might be the same specie that Zer0 is ^_^ !!!
EDIT 2 : Bah... He has the "usual" number of fingers...
Nope, you would know if I was.
The problem with the legendary weapon theory is that many lesser bandits seem to posess one. I -think- I've spotted a skullsmasher (legendary) several times in the hands of lesser bandits. A couple times we see a unkempt Harold (legendary) in the hands of not particularly strong enemies. While some do use green rarity pistols, we also see August has, I think, a purple rarity one (that would make sense though), Vallory unless I'm mistaken uses a green rarity rocket launcher. I think I've spotted a couple blue rarity horse cannons (those are rifles actually). So it doesn't seem TTG followed the rarity thing according to enemy power/difficulty in TFTB. But the stranger, yes, I think, is using a Conference Call (legendary shotgun).
That said it's true you can find legendary drops from unlikely sources, very rarely, but once in a while, in the BL franchise...
(white = common/vendor trash, green = uncommon, blue = rare, purple = epic, orange = legendary)
I believe that The Stranger's height so far fits in with Vaughn's height against Fiona and Rhys...
I'm actually building on other's prior thoughts about The Stranger being Vaughn based on the costume design and a few other hints and subtle allusions (the transition shot in ep 1 being my personal fave).
@Dapnee summed it up best in this thread (unfortunately because it has a spoiler tag I can't link to the direct comment - but look for Dapnee's post on the second page).
Back then I really liked the theory/thought TT were geniuses if they managed to sneak in all these subtle clues - but I couldn't see how it worked within the story. It just didn't make sense to me... Until ep 3 came around, that is!
I'll include the screenshots Dapnee used in her post because they were my first 'aha' moment (note the yellow buckle on the shoulder of both designs and the armbands - sneaky, Telltale, sneaky!):
Yeah, that wager line really has me stumped - I've been wracking my brain trying to come up with a prior character associated with betting/gambling, and the only one I can think of is Claptrap's cameo in Telltale's Poker Night 2 (it couldn't possibly be Clappy, right?!)
And I (and most people) have been very open to The Stranger's gender since the second he/she used the sentence "I'm not a patient person" in the first ep - Gortys' comment definitely reminded me of that.
I'll believe this when there is a HUGE time skip between those flashbacks ans the present scenes. because if this is the vaughn we know in those flashbacks, then i dont think he could pull such big thing of.. what do you think his motives? my theory that it is athena is that maybe she wanted the truth behind this deal. before she met them. and basically wanting to know who the hell is lying lol... i think we know the stranger. but ... again, the wager thing? why he/she wanted to make a deal with fiona but not rhys? what could the deal be? UGHHH TELLTALE STOP TEASING US
.. i would be happy if at least we knew what kind of deal he/she wants from fiona... that could at least hint us
come to think of it, i always wondered why they didnt make clappy appear in Tales, but then they made Gortys.. which is the cutest little thing EVER. lol.. i can live not seeing claptrap the fragtrap in tales!
I think how you're reacting to it is exactly the point though - you're underestimating Vaughn - just like everyone else in the game is.
That's exactly what I think would be Vaughn's motivation to become The Stranger, to prove to them all that he's not the person they think he is - that he's smarter, stronger and tougher than all of them combined and that they shouldn't have underestimated him.
And from the unused voice lines it seems like a year has passed since the 'story' scenes and present-day scenes (that could obviously change, though).
The mystery really does thicken, doesn't it? With only 2 episodes to go, and I havn't a clue what is going to happen, who the stranger is, and what has gone massively wrong since the end of Rhys's and Fiona's adventure. If I had to give a guess though who the stranger was at this point, I'd probably say... Timothy, Jack's body double from the Pre-Sequel. In all seriousness, I cannot think for the life of me of anyone we've met in Tales who could be the stranger. But I would assume that the stranger must have been met in his/her real identity by now, unless they pull a Wedding of River Song, and have the actual person only appear in episode 4.
It's also interesting thing about the time frame of all of it. It's unclear how many months it has been since the flashbacks, and also episode 3 confirming that Athena's narrating of The Pre-Sequel presumably roughly happens during episode 4. Not to mention the fact that in all the "present day" shots, it always seems to show Pandora as being very bleak, although whether that's just mood setting or plot related, we'll have to see. Not to mention the obvious questions of how Fiona knows about Jack, where are Vaughn and Fiona, why are they dressed in black etc.
Out of curiosity, have we ever seen Helios in the present day segments? My theory would be that in episode 4, something big happens on Helios, causing it to cause massive damage to Pandora, with Rhys and Fiona being somehow responsible, and causing grief to the planet, including the ruined building we see in episode 1.
I doubt it's Vaughn : He was there with them, the guy doesnt have a hunch, and he's taller than vaughn. I think it's the Atlas scientist, he knew about the dome. He knew about the Gortys project. He knows loader bots. But theres some evidence against this too. Height, no hunch, legendary weapon.
But can't he die? In my playthrough I stopped Athena killing him, but I was under the assumption if you let her kill him... she kills him. Not to mention the guy seemed pretty old and a bit on the frail side, I doubt he'd give a toss really about everything happening, I think he just wants to be left on his own.
There is no point stranger being Zer0:
a) Zer0 is already masked. Where is the point of another secret identity for unknown person?
b) Zer0 is actually just a pawn. He is hired by Moxxi.
When episode 1 was released, on another thread I've stated my theory that stranger is Moxxi, or new character not yet introduced.
At this point I think that new character is may be already introduced - Vallory.
If it's a Vault Hunter it basically has to be Axton. He is the only one who matches the body type.
It´s getting ridiculous now. People literally seem to simply throw every name they can think of out there no matter how silly. I´m surprised nobody has said Krieg or Tiny Tina yet....
So far, of all I've heard, the only one that seems plausible to me is the theory described by DaveTheArakin above : the guy talking to Zer0 in Crawmerax mini DLC for BL2.
EDIT : Well I doubled checked (see above) and I'm not so sure anymore about the 0ne theory...
Ha, I've been wondering about Helios as well, I've actually payed special attention to the part in ep.3 where Rhys looks at the sky and sees the hole in the rock, and there's no moon or space station visible then. Idk about the other 'modern' segments, but I don't think we see Helios in the sky at any time during those... Hmm... do we somehow cause Helios to fall on Pandora, maybe..?
The main problem I see with Timothy is that he's not necessarily known to people who haven't played TPS. Since TFTB is technically a standalone game, it should be someone they can recognize, especially considering Fiona's latest comments ('you either know us or need us', or the like). But then again, TFTB players didn't know Zer0, Moxxi, Janey, Scooter or Athena either, and they played a part...
Well I just re-did it today fast (that is : on normal mode with my lvl 70 Zer0) and well I'm disapointed because it's not what I thought it would be...
The message says "0ne" and nothing else. We don't know if it's the name of the guy or a tally or a code or something else...
And Zer0 doesn't seem to understand what it is supposed to mean ("Well, that's irritatingly cryptic." he says to himself, not even speaking in Haikus like as usual).
Even though, if it works like the other VHs, there's supposed to be supposed to be someone killing the assassins beforehand, I'm not sure we can say this is a guy called 0ne ?
ALSO (!?) in this DLC it's not the usual voice actor for Zer0 !!!